Li Weidong covertly took a few gold coins that the Portuguese sailors had placed in the palm of his hand, and then slowly led the inspection team behind him to board the Portuguese merchant ship Avila, which had just anchored at the port of Runzhou [Houston], and began to inspect the cargo loaded in the hold.

The conflict between China and the West is now intensifying, and the whole of America is shrouded in the clouds of war, but unlike the Spaniards, who are troubled, the Portuguese in Brazil are happy to see the Sino-Spanish war break out again.

The frequent trade between China and Portugal is a clear example.

At a time when it was becoming increasingly difficult for China to smuggle business between its Spanish American colonies, Brazil took the initiative to open the door to China.

With Runzhou [Houston] and Xintai [New Orleans] on the east coast as the two major centers, the trade between China and Portugal has developed rapidly.

Portugal's colonies in the Americas were mainly Brazil. Brazil was a colony with a tradition of agriculture and animal husbandry, and its grain, dairy products, and meat were supplied to Europe in large quantities, as well as to the Portuguese.

At the same time, the Portuguese also transported large quantities of handicraft products and utensils from Europe. The colony of Brazil has always been a 'simple' cycle of commerce.

But in this simple business turnover, Brazil has amassed enormous wealth.

With the British and Portuguese attacks on the Portuguese colonial empire, the loss of a large area of the colonies in the Far East made Brazil's position in the Portuguese internal system more and more important. Today, it has become the center of the Portuguese colonial empire, and just as the East Indies were to the Netherlands, Brazil has accumulated large quantities of gold, precious stones, sugar cane, coffee and grains from Portugal. Portugal also carried out the trade of black slaves here, which contributed a lot of mixed races to Brazil, and also greatly accelerated the development progress of Brazil.

It is like a huge cow, constantly providing valuable ** to the Kingdom of Portugal.

It's just that the Portuguese at this time can't feel the threat from China, at least until China takes Mexico, the Portuguese will not face up to the threat from China. Although China took back Japan, it almost took away their colony in the East Indies, East Timor, by force.

Now that Portugal has left a lot of energy in Europe, the old rival of the Kingdom of Spain has allied with the Britons, the enemies of the past, and such a change has made the Portuguese very vigilant.

In order to alleviate this pressure, the Portuguese were desperately looking forward to the outbreak of the Sino-Spanish War again, so that the Spaniards would no longer be a threat.

Just a few years ago, an uprising broke out within Brazil, and it is difficult to say whether it was influenced by France or the lighthouse state, and although the uprising was suppressed and the leaders were sent to the gallows, the Portuguese ruling class was still very shaken.

You know, with the loss of colonial interests in the East, the focus of the Portuguese colony changed to Brazil, and Brazil's superior living environment also attracted a large number of Portuguese to settle, in the early part of this century, in order to prevent the loss of the native population, John V ordered to prohibit Portuguese immigration.

With such deep roots, the uprising still broke out in Brazil, which had to wake up the upper ruling class in Portugal itself. Therefore, they all hope that war will break out in the vicinity, so that the external threat and pressure on Portugal will be greatly reduced, and they can also take the opportunity to look at themselves.

"The finest copper, lead and tin, these are all duty-free strategic materials. Well, Mr. Valdés, please go to the management office and wait at the dock to unload the cargo. I have to congratulate you on making a good business, now the market for these supplies is very good, and you have made a lot of money this time. After inspecting some of the containers, the members of Li Weidong's group immediately smiled at a Portuguese businessman who was about forty years old.

Strong execution is the greatest reliance to ensure and comply with the requirements of the system.

In Chen Han itself, such a situation of bribery is simply impossible, but in the Americas, in Runzhou, this situation not only happens, but is quite common.

In a word, Li Weidong not only went into the water by himself, but also dragged the inspection team that he stretched out his hand into the water.

In Chen Han locality, because the customs is well manned, the staffing of the inspection team is uncertain, and today you are in a group with Zhang San and Li Si, and tomorrow you will be in a group with Wang Wu and Zhao Liu, and this restricts the possibility of accepting bribes and embezzling bribes to a large extent.

But the Americas are different. First of all, there are not enough customs personnel here.

If there is not enough manpower, the system can only be simplified, then there will be many loopholes, and there will be many loopholes for drilling. Of course, this is not the main reason, the main reason is that the upper head is not strict.

These big and small people in the customs are all shunted out of the local customs administration, do they dare to do this when they are in the country? Scared them to death. But in the Americas, it is not just human greed that such habits have been acquired so quickly. So the customs officers in Tokyo and Hanjin are still the same, and Runzhou is already broken?

One of the main reasons is that the upper authorities are not strict.

The people at the top themselves took the lead in breaking some of the rules. Then the people below will naturally follow suit.

The prestige and power of the kings of the six vassal states in the Americas were not the same as their big brother, Emperor Chen. Emperor Chen is the master who decides life and death in one word, but the subordinates of the six vassal kings of the Americas are full of various interests and relationships. And when the political system is mixed with human feelings and interests, then it should not be like the 'system' to continue perfectly.

The 'human favor' thing has inherently corroded the high-level of the feudal kingdom, and it is not an exaggeration for the people below to do so. As long as it is blatant, some little sloppiness is so-so.

"I wish God would give me a little more good luck so that I can make a few more trips to you before the war starts." Valdés' face was full of smiles, a smile that finally rewarded him after a 'hard' work.

Copper, lead, and tin are strategic materials not only in Chinese, but also in Europe. He had a lot of energy in Rio de Janeiro to put together a boatload of stuff. It's just that the price given by the Chinese is worth racking his brains like this.

Copper, lead and tin are strategic materials urgently needed by Chinese in the Americas, and they have been on the first page of the zero-tariff trade goods catalog all year round. After the officials of the port management office weighed the materials, they readily issued a ticket for Captain Valdés to pick up the goods at the trade center.

This is a type of bartering bill. It can only be used in Runzhou Port, and it cannot be used in Xintai not far away.

The value of the goods written on it means that Valdés's goods were officially eaten by Runzhou Customs, and with the bill presented by the management office, according to the amount above, Valdés can either select and pick up the goods at the trade center - made in China, or exchange them for gold and silver coins there.

Such bills are not available to every European and American merchant who comes here to trade.

But as long as there are such bills, in the past few years since the opening of Runzhou, no one has ever exchanged bills for gold and silver coins. Because it was a special pass, Valdés could buy things that money couldn't buy.

For example, large-caliber artillery, muskets, high-end silk, wool and porcelain, and the miraculous oriental medicine that has been passed down in Europe.

When the modern medicine of the West was still in its infancy, the Chinese medicine from the East successfully invaded the West with its two or three thousand years of ripe fruits, when China wantonly 'entered' the world of Western monogods.

Nowadays, some European scholars in China are specialized in the study of traditional Chinese medicine.

Chen Ming just doesn't know how long this leading position can continue to lead in the era of rapid development of modern medicine in the future.

This kind of thing is the same as large-caliber artillery, high-grade silk and porcelain, and it is a 'scarce commodity'. Only merchants who had brought the same scarce goods to Central America could purchase those goods in unlimited quantities with their tickets.

It's just that Valdes doesn't want to waste so much effort, he can actually be very simple, such as transporting one or two hundred tons of wheat, bacon meat, dairy products, etc. to Runzhou and Xintai, these things Chen Han is also extremely in demand.

-- The Chinese Americas had just been developed, and once the war began, the problem of food supply for the army would be a big problem. So it was necessary to buy some grain, meat, and dairy products from the Europeans and Americans first.

Of course, the metal that Captain Valdés brought was not the same as wheat, and he did not make as much profit as he did on three trips to wheat.

In Runzhou, only the stupidest people would return to South America, or Europe, with a shipload of gold and silver. Mr. Valdés is certainly not an idiot. So he purchased a large number of in-demand goods, and at the same time he decided to buy some Chinese standard metal farming tools and tools on the spot, and then return to Brazil to sell.

These metal farming tools and tools are not regulated anywhere in the world, although they are also metals. But it is an indispensable commodity for farmers and craftsmen, and it is a best-selling commodity in Brazil, Argentina, and the United States, where farmers or farmers are happy to pay for a good metal farm implement.

However, what Mr. Valdés wants most is Chinese medicine, after all, in this era, whether it is Paris, Madrid, or London, Chinese gold sore medicine is extremely needed. Even if he stayed in Brazil, when the war between China and Spain began, he could sell it to Spain at a high price.

Chinese gold sore medicine cannot absolutely avoid wound inflammation, but it can indeed reduce the probability of postoperative inflammation of wounded patients to a certain extent in large-scale application. At the same time, under the influence of Chinese hospitals, the hygiene of military hospitals and civilian hospitals in the West has been greatly improved, which itself has reduced the chance of inflammation after surgery for the wounded and sick to a certain extent.

As for the role played by the gold sore medicine during this period, and how much of a role it played, it is really difficult to say.

However, the medical 'achievements' represented by cowpox and hospitals have proved the achievements of Chinese medicine with 'facts', and compared with the poor germination of modern medicine in the West, the achievements of traditional Chinese medicine are so brilliant.

The gold sore medicine is the crystallization of the results of Chinese medicine for thousands of years in dealing with sword trauma, and it does have some curative effects on wounds to stop bleeding and heal.

After all, Sanqi [the ancient name of Tianqi] is only found in the deep mountains and old forests of Yunnan and Guangxi in the world, and before there is no artificial large-scale planting, the preciousness of this thing is still quite high.

The main medicine of the famous Yunnan Baiyao in later generations is Tian Qi, and the main medicine of Pien Tze Huang also has Tian Qi.

Regardless of whether there are feudal superstitions and erroneous records in the famous "Compendium of Materia Medica", the record of Panax notoginseng in the book by Dr. Li Shenyi can be seen by future generations, and it is recorded in the book that Panax notoginseng [Tianqi] is produced in the deep mountains of the south, which is rare and expensive. Moreover, this medicine (Sanqi) began to emerge recently, and it was used as a medicine for gold sores in the Nanren army......

The medicine used in the gold sore medicine in the army, at first glance, must be a lot of medicine, and it may not be available in the wild. But in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, when it was still in the army in the south, were the Ming soldiers still human?

I'm afraid that this kind of gold sore medicine that Tian Qi uses as a dispensing medicine is only qualified to be used by military officers.

Li Shizhen's age was already in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and it was only two hundred years by the Chengtian period. The planting history of Tianqi in Wenshan, Yunnan, the main production area of Tianqi, was not recorded before the Ming Dynasty.

It can be seen how rare this thing is.

By the time Chen Ming ruled the world, Emperor Chen did not know the formula of Yunnan Baiyao, but he found the formula of Pien Tze Huang from the Tai Hospital of the Manchu Dynasty, and at the same time, he also knew the name and function of Tian Qi's medicinal herb.

When he first started the army, he named Tian Qi among the military supplies, so he knew that Tian Qi's production area was mainly Wenshan County, Yunnan, and he also knew that there were no other places outside Yunnan except for a small amount of Tian Qi in Guangxi.

Therefore, after the soldiers of the Fu Han army swept Yunnan, Chen Ming ordered to go down and vigorously promote the artificial planting of Tianqi. It's just that up to now, ninety percent of China's Tianqi output is still in Wenshan.

Now Tian Qi's seeds and tea seeds are at the same level of secrecy in Chen Han.

Europeans can grow rhubarb in Europe, but they can't grow notoginseng.

However, some gold sore drugs produced in China are indeed effective for gunshot wounds, knife wounds and other external injuries, which has caused the gold sore medicine to be sought-after and precious in the foreign trade market. Especially in the time of the Great War in Europe!

When Valdés came to the port of Runzhou, in addition to a full shipload of goods, he also loaded two boxes of gold and silver coins, because he knew very well that the value of his goods would not fit enough for a ship of fine silk, porcelain, and sought-after Chinese medicines, or even half a ship. So he prepared two extra boxes of gold and silver coins, which could be used to buy cloth. Metal implements, farm implements, etc.

Even if Brazil can't sell these things for a high price, they can be sold to merchant ships going to Europe.

"Grain, dairy? I don't want to be on the government's blacklist. You see, except for the coarse Yankees in the north, no one wants to sell you grain openly. Otherwise the Spaniards would have gone mad. ”

"They are no longer allies of the French, but powerful assistants of London."

Valdés did not hesitate to reject Li Weidong's proposal, he is a Portuguese who loves his motherland very much, and Lisbon does not want the Chinese to reserve enough grain, or everyone believes that when the Sino-Spanish war begins, the Chinese will buy wheat and meat milk at a higher price. It's not a good time to make a move!

It's just that everyone didn't expect the war to come so quickly, and just before Valdés left Runzhou, ships from Europe sent to the Americas brought the news of the Spanish navy's attack on the Chinese fleet.

Another American War between China and the West began.